Migration arrests in Libya as Europe tightens cooperation

From eastern Libya to Europe, the central Mediterranean route remains a black hole.

According to Libya Review, Libya’s Anti-Illegal Migration Agency has arrested 28 Bangladeshi irregular migrants in the eastern city of Al-Bayda. The operation was carried out by the agency’s Security Operations Department following what authorities described as precise intelligence indicating the presence of a group of Bangladeshi migrants inside a house on the outskirts of the city. All 28 individuals were arrested and were reportedly part of an organised human smuggling attempt.

The arrest and detention of migrants intercepted before departure or rescued off the Libyan coast is a long-standing practice, both in eastern and western Libya. On 3 February, for instance, more than 2,000 irregular migrants were detained in a single day during a large-scale security operation in the southwestern city of Sebha.

Efforts to halt departures along the central Mediterranean route reflect the priorities of European countries, which have increasingly sought to curb arrivals by striking agreements with migrant departure and transit states. One of the most well-known arrangements is the 2017 Memorandum of Understanding on Migration Cooperation (MoU) between Italy and Libya, under which Rome committed to providing financial and logistical support to the Libyan coast guard and cooperating on border control in the North African country.

In March 2023, the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya concluded that crimes against humanity had been committed in Libya and called for an end to all forms of support to Libyan actors involved in such abuses, as reported by Amnesty International Italy. Despite these findings, cooperation between Italy and Libya on migration control has continued to deepen.

Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi most recently visited Libya on 9 February, when he met Abdulhamid Dabaiba, Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity (GNU), in Tripoli. Two days later, on 11 February, Piantedosi also met with Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar in eastern Libya.

The United Nations has repeatedly raised concerns over the treatment of migrants in Libya, describing it as incompatible with international human rights standards. The latest report, published on 18 February and cited by APA News, covers the period from January 2024 to December 2025 and documents what it describes as an “exploitative model preying on migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees in situations of heightened vulnerability.” The report characterises this system as a “brutal and normalised reality” that has effectively become a business.

With the latest vote in the European Parliament, it appears that Italy’s approach to managing migration has increasingly become the European approach. Despite repeated warnings from the United Nations, the EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum revises the asylum framework to allow for an increase in returns to so-called “safe third countries,” including transit states, a category that could potentially include Libya.

Libya Review, APA News, Amnesty International Italy, Maghrebi.org